We require our applicants to write a short biography/essay. Many times I have detected plagiarism within the essay (by copying and pasting it into Google). Is there a way to have applications checked by Turnitin if we have that integrated into Populi?
2 comments
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Toby Robinson Official comment You can now run similarity checks on applications.
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Evan Donovan Just as an additional thing to consider: Application essays can be faked extremely easily now by ChatGPT or similar systems. I have tested this.
AI-generated application essays probably wouldn't show in a similarity check, because they probably wouldn't be on the Internet already.
Does Populi's TurnItIn integration check for any signs of AI use? If so, does it depend on what level of TurnItIn you are paying for? I know those also can make errors, but it would be better than nothing.
We have been using Unicheck to date, but it's my understanding TurnItIn is now discontinuing Unicheck.
I think perhaps the best way to handle this, if there is not an immediate technical solution, would be to ask questions on the personal essay that are a) more specific / unusual, b) ideally, that require incorporating information that you are asking about in other questions on the form, so they could be cross-checked. That would go some ways toward "future-proofing" your application essays, since I think in the future many people will try to use AI to generate these.